Editorial.
Harris, Natasha
The word 'paradigm', once an obscure linguist term
denoting the pattern of verb conjugation, took on new life when Kuhn
used it in his analysis of scientific progression. In his more widely
enduring definition, 'paradigm' describes the set of shared
beliefs and assumptions held by a knowledge community. A paradigm offers
a way of thinking about a field of thought: it encloses and governs
interpretation of 'objective' reality. The 'paradigm
shift' is the moment of change, when, as at the top of Enid
Blyton's Faraway Tree, one world moves on and another heaves into
view.
At its heart, the paradigm shift is a simple yet profound cognitive
experience, illustrated in numerous psychology textbooks in the
old--young woman line drawing. At first glance, the lines resemble an
old woman, chin tucked into her chest. But look longer and a young
woman, face turned away, emerges. The collection of lines--the hard
data--changes before your eyes. When this kind of cognitive shift occurs
in a research field, the repercussions are widespread. Kuhn associated
the paradigm shift with advances in knowledge; indeed, his thesis was in
part that significant advancements in scientific knowledge were
necessarily accompanied by a paradigm shift in dominant understandings.
And young scholars play an important role in this development. Kuhn
notes that shifts are usually effected by those who are either new to a
field, or young: neither have fully assimilated the governing paradigm
and so are able to make leaps that others overlook.
Sharp new eyes, then, and minds untrammelled by the strictures of
habit, are what our postgraduates bring to their field of work. Or at
the very least, an eye for the points of rupture and dissidence within a
field, and an interest in new ways of looking at old problems. In her
investigation of the puzzling ecological phenomenon of acid sulfate soils, Michaela Spencer deftly demonstrates the value of applying a
'more heterogenous and reflexive science' in the process of
scientific research. For her, environmental scientist Jes Sammut offers
an example of Haraway's 'mutated modest witness': a
necessary revision of the old 'objective' model of the
scientific practitioner.
Practicing physician Annette Webb likewise makes a stand against
the orthodoxy of her field by making a clear case for the usefulness of
an unconventional treatment strategy for irritable bowel syndrome.
Treating physical symptoms with hypnotherapy--better known as a tool of
psychology--flies in the face of conventional medicine, but as Webb
shows, the clinical evidence for the efficacy of this treatment is there
when the therapist's paradigm allows for a link between body and
mind.
Interestingly, Webb's work is one of three articles that take
issue with the supposed separation of body and mind. Aaron Retz seeks an
understanding of 'mind' that goes beyond the separation of
bodily perceptions and higher order interpretations, and the designation
of the brain as the mind's physical seat. Rather, he sees mind as
'a process that is embedded in the dynamic interactions between
embodied creatures and the world'. Paul Mason shares this view, and
his article is a thoughtful argument for the value of
neuroanthropology--a multidisciplinary field integrating neuroscience
and anthropology--as a way to analyse the mind, self, society and
culture as deeply imbricated physical and cultural processes.
Acknowledging integrations--cultural and material, biological and
social--is a crucial methodological preoccupation for many of the
authors in this volume. In her article on reproductive imaging
technologies, Meredith Nash shows how advancements in the medical realm
have had serious consequences for cultural understandings of the unborn,
and ultimately, the lives and choices of women. 'The Fetishised
Fetus' offers a timely interrogation of the cultural meanings
attached to both 'fetus' and 'mother', just as the
political debate over reproductive rights in Australia looks set to be
reopened.
In a more subtle interpretation of the theme of paradigm shift,
three authors revisit an accepted view of history in order to challenge
its presumptions and offer an alternative interpretation. Bamforth
expertly debunks Samuel Huntington's 'clash of
civilisations' thesis by uncovering the political and cultural
continuity and hybridity in Russian attitudes to the Turkic populations
on the country's border. Gomes reminds Western film criticism that
the Asian woman warrior that so captured the imagination of popular
critics and audiences has a long history in Asian martial arts cinema
(wu xia pian), early Beijing opera and wu xia literature. And finally,
Dan Disney dazzles us with theoretical pyrotechnics as he attempts to
clear a space among the postmodern debris for a resurrected aesthetic
avant-garde, or 'proto-avant-garde'.
Sadly, this year, another 'paradigm shift' hovers over
Traffic's landscape: the Howard government's legislation
designed to abolish the compulsory Service and Amenities Fee that funds
student associations across Australia. So-called 'Voluntary Student
Unionism' effectively signals an end to collective payment for
resources and a representative student voice, and ushers in the
'user-pays' individualism already entrenched in many other
sectors of Australian social life. A footnote on history, perhaps, for
future generations of postgraduate students here at Melbourne, who will
never know UMPA as it stands today.
The work of postgraduate researchers and reviewers published in
Traffic number seven shows a postgraduate voice that, as yet, still has
an avenue. If you've enjoyed reading this or previous volumes of
Traffic, be sure to subscribe, as Traffic's ongoing success depends
upon its readership. Now, more than ever, it is important to support
rigourous, informed research from a developing segment of the knowledge
community. The future of higher education may well be in its hands.
